Quid Pro Quo: Drug cartel to pay for the wall! Ever the dealmaker, ...

The Art of the Deal. Indeed!

The Donald flew into Mexico as the most unpopular figure in the country, without a close second, and walked out like he owned the joint.

Reading between the lines of the biggest question coming out of the meeting, “Who is going to pay for the wall?” I see a brilliant quid pro quo being engineered by Trump.

Nieto’s poll numbers are in the toilet. After the meeting he tweeted, “I repeat what I told you in person, Mr. Trump: Mexico will never pay for a wall,” he tweeted in Spanish….

What Nieto is saying is, “Mexico will not VOLUNTARILY pay for the wall.”

Yes, we get that, but there are many, many ways to make Mexico involuntarily pay for the wall, from denying foreign aid to import tariffs to taxing money sent to Mexico from the US, among other methods. The US is in the driver’s seat. Mexico is simply a passenger.

Nieto’s big talk is good for his poll numbers. If Trump does not directly go after the Mexican government or the Mexican people to collect the money to build the wall, Nieto looks like the victor, his poll numbers skyrocket and Mexicans cheer “Viva Nieto” in the streets for vanquishing “el yanqui rubia.”

But how to do it. How does Trump force Mexico to pay for the wall without making Mexico’s leadership look weak for not being able to prevent it?

I know! Let’s make the Mexican boogeymen, the drug cartels, pay for the wall!

Everyone hates the cartels. They kill Mexicans and Americans alike and have wreaked havoc on the people and economies of both countries.

Remember, the goal of building the wall was to benefit the American people. It was never a goal to injure the Mexican people.

This scenario of cartel seizures paying for the wall — done easily from less than a year’s seizure of drug money — benefits the people of both countries and makes both leaders look like geniuses.

Brilliant!